3 Tips to Keep You Praying on Christmas Vacation

Christmas day is over, but school is still out, and many people are taking some time off work between Christmas and New Year’s. And whether you are staying home or travelling during your vacation, stepping back from normal life often means stepping back from your normal prayer life. But it is possible to keep your prayer life alive on vacation.

Recently Fr. Eric Nielsen stopped by The Inner Life®to discuss prayer on vacation and offer some tips to help us stay on track and connected with the Lord each day. Here are a few of his suggestions:

Be RealisticWhat I tell the students here is to realize you’re not going to maintain your normal discipline, unless you are a very disciplined person, or you’re going somewhere where you’ll have control over your time. You can dial back your spiritual life 50-80%, but hold on to the essentials that you’re not going to let go of. Maybe you’re just going to say the rosary, and you’re going to make that your anchor that you’re going to hold on to. If you can find something like that to do over vacation, consider that a win.

Make a PlanNever go to bed at night without figuring out when you’re going to maintain this discipline. Always go to bed with a plan that you have in the morning of when you’re going to do that prayer. What you’re doing is you’re making God a priority.

Don’t Give Up Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Sometimes we get really frustrated when things don’t go as well as they should, and the devil gets in there and tells us we’re not doing it right, so we should just give it up. And it kind of gives us an excuse to be discouraged, to feel sorry for ourselves, and to stop whatever we’re doing. But perseverance is such a beautiful, beautiful virtue. Realize it’s not going to be perfect, but do it anyway. Go in with that good spirit and if you fall on your face one day, definitely get up and make sure that you make prayer a priority.

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